Great performances and a smart decision to avoid melodrama make Skin worth seeing but it's the small things that hold it back from being truly great.
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11/13/09
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Skin (2009)
87
%
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Reviews Counted:47
Fresh:41
Rotten:6
Average Rating:6.8/10
Consensus: Sophie Okonedo, Sam Neill, and Alice Krige do wonderful work in Skin, delivering performances whose strength is underlined by the incredible real-life events upon which the movie is based.
Theatrical Release:Oct 30, 2009 Limited
Synopsis: Skinis the astonishing true story of Sandra Laing (Sophie Okonedo (Hotel Rwanda/The Secret Life of Bees) & young Ella Ramangwane), a black child born in 1950s South Africa to white Afrikaners (Sam... [More]
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Reviews for Skin
Given the subject matter, I wish there were more outrage and passion in Skin, which plods from one huge event to another.
11/13/09
It feels hurried, looks cheap, and works overtime to simplify a complex, flawed character into a noble, tragic heroine. The film speaks fluent cliché.
11/12/09
Top CriticThis great film by Anthony Fabian tells this story through the eyes of a happy girl who grows into an outsider.
11/12/09
Top CriticA powerful fact-based parable illustrating exactly how irrational and cruel racial bigotry is.
11/07/09
What takes that story of heartbreak and makes it ultimately heartwarming is that Sandra's story, much like the history of apartheid itself, doesn't end there.
11/06/09
Top CriticBy the end, the incredulity stems not from the fact that this happened but that the wider world didn't know about it before now.
11/06/09
Top CriticSophie Okonedo, so good in Hotel Rwanda, is fine here as well.
11/06/09
Director Anthony Fabian lets the story sell itself, and it does so partly on the strength of the lead performance by Sophie Okonedo.
11/05/09
Top CriticSkin is a moving and smartly made account of a truly peculiar episode from the period of apartheid that existed as national policy in South Africa until just 15 years ago.
11/05/09
As told by director Anthony Fabian, Skin is both exasperatingly choppy and exceptionally moving.
11/05/09
Top CriticSkin is a tragic, enraging, and uplifting tale.
11/04/09
Top CriticA powerful story. However, there were no DNA tests in 1955. I have never heard of a 'genetic abnormality' creating a child who looks distinctly black -- Maury Povich would probably say, 'You are not the father!'
11/02/09
A frightening primer on how untreated racism can lead someone to abandon, even hate their own offspring.
10/31/09
A powerful and poignant drama set in South Africa about the toxins of racial hatred and the terrible after-effects of the dangerous and destructive passion of zeal.
10/30/09
This unadorned but affecting drama about Sandra Laing, who attracted media attention in the 1950s when her white parents fought the South African system, suffers from a one-note script, but still does right by its tricky subject.
10/30/09
Top CriticOn-location authenticity lifts poignant debut feature out of pathos and melodrama for a sobering lesson about racism and the dystopian reality of apartheid.
10/30/09
The direction is never more than conventional, with a tear-inducing finale better suited to a TV soap opera.
10/30/09
Top CriticIn a day when it's difficult to say something new about the racial divide, Sandy's story has a poignant power as it underscores just how deeply the fissures run even when it's all in the family.
10/30/09
Top CriticWe don’t need overwrought performances to understand the calamity of her life or to weep when her parents turn their backs on her. If anything, the story demands restraint because, invariably at the movies, it’s the gentle touch that hits harder.
10/30/09
Top CriticLatest News for Skin
October 31, 2009:
Apartheid poses problem for white couple with black baby. 
More...
October 29, 2009:
Critics Consensus: This Is It Is Certified Fresh
This week at the movies brings only one wide release: the hotly-anticipated performance documentary Michael Jackson's This Is It, which captures the King of Pop in rehearsals... More...
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